Auto show/expand outliner to selected objects
So we know that if the object is already visible in the outliner (not buried in a hierarchy like bones), it will be &quot;highlighted&quot;, but the outliner will not auto-scroll to display it.
If you hover your mouse over the outliner window and enter '.', it will scroll and expand hierarchy to display the selected object.
Sometimes I set up another copy of the outliner, and in the filters select to show &quot;Selected&quot; Objects, instead of the default &quot;All&quot;.  However, if I selected a hierarchical child object (like a bone), it will still not cooperate fully unless I enter '.' (will then expand to the selected child).
Note that Shift-&quot;right arrow&quot; will expand the complete child hierarchy from the selected parent.

For those of us 3ds Max converts, blender disappoints here.  I may update if I come up with a python script to &quot;sync outliner to selection&quot; in the 3ds Max way.